Aug 31, 2021
A&A Organic Farms showcasing sustainable packaging

A&A Organic Farms in Watsonville, California will launch its second-generation compostable, recyclable packaging for cherry tomatoes at the Organic Produce Summit’s trade show September 16, 2021, in Monterey, California.

Rainbow Cherry Tomatoes in one of the sustainable containers

A&A Organic Farms specializes in sales, distribution, package design & marketing strategies for a variety of organic produce, and works directly with family-owned organic farms located on California’s Central Coast, Mexico and South America. The company offers an extensive line of organic produce which includes tomatoes, citrus, avocados, broccoli, turmeric, ginger, garlic and berries. A&A Organic Farms produce is certified organic, with some of their grower-partners offering Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance Certified produce.

This second-generation packaging is a new dry pint design that features a closable vented top.

“It is basically just like a plastic clamshell,” A&A Organic Farms President Andy Martin said in a news release. “We have a lot of retailers that do not want to carry the open pint container, so we worked on a design to allow the tomatoes to be visible and have a closed top to prevent spillage or the need for the customer to use a plastic bag to prevent the tomatoes from spilling out in the shopping cart. It’s a win-win situation for us and the environment.”

The packaging is bi-lingual for sales in both the U.S. and Canada. The cherry tomatoes are available on a year-round basis.

The new packaging has a unique UPC number for each variety; Rainbow Cherry, Red Cherry and Red Grape, which ensures the store gets the correct ring at the register, according to the news release. A&A Organic Farm’s Organic Red Grape, Red Cherry and Rainbow Cherry Tomatoes are grown in Baja California and in Central California. There are 12 dry pints per box and 144 boxes per pallet.

Since A&A Organic Farms began using the Ready Cycle packaging in 2018, its intention for its eco-conscious container with food-grade ink has been to trail-blaze the reduction of plastic from the produce aisle. Current plastic reducing packaging used by A&A Organic Farms is the Ready Cycle containers for strawberry and cherry tomatoes, as well as the Pacon “reduced plastic” bags for their bag citrus programs. These bags are made with 75% less plastic than traditional mesh bags and now have a recyclable header card.

Since A & A Organic Farms introduced their Ready Cycle compostable branded packaging in May of 2018, they and their customers have diverted more than 21 tons of plastic containers from our landfills. Samples of their new organic cherry tomato packaging will be on display at their booth and in the new products showcase at the OPS Summit in September and are currently available for purchase.

Martin said A & A Organic Farms hope introduce more sustainable packaging in the near future.

“We have seen time and time again that the retailer that is willing to take on this packaging is rewarded by excellent customer support in their stores,” he said.

For more information about A & A Organic Farms, visit their website: www.aaorganic.com or call (831) 768-0300.


Be sure to check out our other specialty agriculture brands

produceprocessingsm